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Eden keeps Haast's eagles, Harpagornis moorei, in a large semi-outdoor free-flight aviary within the Wings: The Evolution of Flight exhibit complex. Their needs are modest, beyond significant space, as their care otherwise differs little from that of other large Holocenic birds of prey, save for their diet, which includes many lambs, calves, and other large mammals rather than rabbits or rodents, generally provided whole, though not live, for enrichment purposes. With males weighing up to twenty-five pounds and females nearly half-again more, and both genders obtaining wingspans over eight feet in width, they are very intimidating and potentially dangerous birds which require careful handling - this is a species, after all, which evolved to hunt the enormous flightless moas of New Zealand and which quite likely also pursued our own kind during the brief period of time in which we shared the same habitats around seven hundred years ago. Haast's eagles are among the largest of flying birds, and while their wings are not exceptionally large given their size, equating with large specimens of other extant species, they are extremely wide, adapted for highly maneuverable flight through wooded environments in pursuit of very large and powerful prey animals many times their size. In captivity, it should come as no surprise that flight room is a prerequisite to properly house such an animal, and Eden houses its current pair in a meshed outdoor enclosure, built amongst natural vegetation and complete with a small filtered pool, which totals over four and a half acres in area and eight stories high, not counting two fairly large indoor flight rooms sufficient for brief sustained flight in addition for periods of inclement weather.
Eden today houses four specimens of this grand species in two groups, which alternate bi-weekly between indoor and outdoor enclosures. First among them the park's first true pair - Faust, the 'small' though feisty male, and Vera, his considerably larger, considerably more belligerent mate. In addition are kept their two young female offspring Ivy and Kira, aged one and three years respectively, the successful results of two productive breeding seasons - Haast's eagles, even in a captive setting, breed surprisingly readily if their needs are met, but will do so only in alternate years and will produce but a single egg when they do so, leaving their reproductive rates low but off-set by presumably, if they are alike other eagles, very long lifespans. Faust and Vera tolerated their young amongst them for over a year, well passed her independence, but grew very violent towards her when they began to nest again the following season, requiring the separation of the generations. Without a mate, even after a year of solitary the older sibling paid little mind to her younger sister when she too was isolated from her parents following independence; today the two seem to rarely notice the other's existence at all, never bickering but sharing no noticeable bonds. Bonded pairs, however, are very closely attached to each other with the partners crying shrilly for one another if taken from eye contact - when Faust's first mate Lady fell egg-bound at just three years old and passed suddenly, he cried for her and searched the enclosure for more than a month, refusing for the entire time any contact with Vera - who at the time had been living in her own enclosure without a partner - until he was sure Lady was not going to return, accepting Vera the following season. Though the females in this species are larger, it is the males which seem driven as the protectors, and when the pair have ever had eggs Faust becomes driven with testosterone-fueled aggression, crashing his talons against fences and hissing wildly if humans - more specifically keepers, for zoo patrons are kept via additional barriers well away from the area of the aviary home to the birds' nesting quarters - approach too near to the half of the exhibit near the thirty-foot-tall nesting platform. At sun-up and sun-set the birds all take a few minutes to keep tabs on one another and further stake their claims on their territories, alighting high in their exhibits and calling out with loud and repetitive shrieks, calls that ascend steadily higher and are emitted more and more quickly until they terminate with a rather disconcerting laughter-like cackle that carries across the park on the twilight air.
While they may lack the curb appeal of large dinosaurs or megafaunal mammals, Haast's eagles are among the star attractions in Wings, with many smaller enclosures and exhibitions flanking their large and landscaped aviary, which runs in an L shape around the East corner of the complex. Trained to circle their enclosures a number of times in order to receive their feedings, in this way the birds get vital exercise they may be less inclined to get on their own if their food were merely dropped at their feet and visitors, if they time their visit to the aviary at the right time, are treated to a truly magnificent sight as the birds flutter powerfully through the air, beating enormous, broad wings and creating palpable gusts outside. Though in the wild, their kind vanished with the extinction of the moa - their major food source - twas one - for now, is bright at Eden.
Eden today houses four specimens of this grand species in two groups, which alternate bi-weekly between indoor and outdoor enclosures. First among them the park's first true pair - Faust, the 'small' though feisty male, and Vera, his considerably larger, considerably more belligerent mate. In addition are kept their two young female offspring Ivy and Kira, aged one and three years respectively, the successful results of two productive breeding seasons - Haast's eagles, even in a captive setting, breed surprisingly readily if their needs are met, but will do so only in alternate years and will produce but a single egg when they do so, leaving their reproductive rates low but off-set by presumably, if they are alike other eagles, very long lifespans. Faust and Vera tolerated their young amongst them for over a year, well passed her independence, but grew very violent towards her when they began to nest again the following season, requiring the separation of the generations. Without a mate, even after a year of solitary the older sibling paid little mind to her younger sister when she too was isolated from her parents following independence; today the two seem to rarely notice the other's existence at all, never bickering but sharing no noticeable bonds. Bonded pairs, however, are very closely attached to each other with the partners crying shrilly for one another if taken from eye contact - when Faust's first mate Lady fell egg-bound at just three years old and passed suddenly, he cried for her and searched the enclosure for more than a month, refusing for the entire time any contact with Vera - who at the time had been living in her own enclosure without a partner - until he was sure Lady was not going to return, accepting Vera the following season. Though the females in this species are larger, it is the males which seem driven as the protectors, and when the pair have ever had eggs Faust becomes driven with testosterone-fueled aggression, crashing his talons against fences and hissing wildly if humans - more specifically keepers, for zoo patrons are kept via additional barriers well away from the area of the aviary home to the birds' nesting quarters - approach too near to the half of the exhibit near the thirty-foot-tall nesting platform. At sun-up and sun-set the birds all take a few minutes to keep tabs on one another and further stake their claims on their territories, alighting high in their exhibits and calling out with loud and repetitive shrieks, calls that ascend steadily higher and are emitted more and more quickly until they terminate with a rather disconcerting laughter-like cackle that carries across the park on the twilight air.
While they may lack the curb appeal of large dinosaurs or megafaunal mammals, Haast's eagles are among the star attractions in Wings, with many smaller enclosures and exhibitions flanking their large and landscaped aviary, which runs in an L shape around the East corner of the complex. Trained to circle their enclosures a number of times in order to receive their feedings, in this way the birds get vital exercise they may be less inclined to get on their own if their food were merely dropped at their feet and visitors, if they time their visit to the aviary at the right time, are treated to a truly magnificent sight as the birds flutter powerfully through the air, beating enormous, broad wings and creating palpable gusts outside. Though in the wild, their kind vanished with the extinction of the moa - their major food source - twas one - for now, is bright at Eden.
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Haast eagle lived in jungle enivoriments